Worrying
by Aiden Ravelle
Summary: Keiichiro keeps worrying about Kairi and wondering why he's hurt. Kairi can't exactly say Patren 1gou did it, or can he?


At time of writing this I've seen up to episode 39. I don't own lupat. Hope you enjoy.

Keiichiro caught Kairi's wrist as he pulled away after putting Keiichiro's plate down.

"What happened?" Keiichiro pushed up Kairi's sleeve a bit to reveal the bruising he caught a glimpse of.

"It was an accident," Kairi tore his arm away.

"It looks like a hand mark, Kairi. Who did this to you?"

Kairi walked toward the kitchen, it's not like he could tell Keiichiro that Patren 1gou did it. He froze though when Keiichiro asked, "I know you don't get along with your brother, he didn't do this to you, did he?"

Kairi's whole body tensed straining to not pull out his VS changer and shoot at the other red ranger. Both teams paused by the tension, waiting to see what Kairi was going to say.

Kairi took a deep breath, "Don't you ever accuse him of something like that again. I might hate him sometimes but he would never be capable of that."

"Who hurt you then?"

"Myself, like I said, accident." He threw his apron on the counter and walked up the stairs.

Later that day, Keiichiro noticed Kairi sitting at the park. He approached slowly, "I'm sorry about earlier. I've just been worried about you lately. You seem distant, like you have a lot on your mind."

"Thanks for your concern officer, but I can handle myself fine, thanks."

"You are a good person Kairi. I hate to see you struggling. Please let me help you."

Kairi scoffed, "A good person? You don't know anything about me."

"I can tell a good person when I see one. And I'd know more if you'd talk to me."

"You can wrap a present and make it look good, that doesn't mean the present inside isn't a piece of crap." Kairi stood up and started walking off.

"Why do you think so badly of yourself?"

"It's true. I was always living in my brother's shadow, angry and jealous, and now I've finally found something I excel at but…" Kairi stopped talking before he gave too much information away. His feet started moving again, leaving Keiichiro confused behind him.

The next day at the Jurer, the patrangers were greeted by all three bistro workers.

"I looked up your brother. People say they haven't seen him in over a year," Keiichiro told Kairi.

Noel started choking on his food in shock. Both Umika and Tsukasa patted him on the back.

"Yeah. He wanted a change, and I was old enough to take care of myself, so he moved. Went off the grid," Kairi said passively.

"You miss him, don't you?" Sakuya asked.

"Can you please stop bringing him up?" Kairi sighed as he refilled their glasses.

"Why is he such a touchy subject?" Sakuya wondered.

"His brother is all he has left, but they fight a lot," Umika answered.

"Stop," Touma gave Umika a stern look.

"You guys are a lot like siblings here though, aren't you?" Tsukasa noticed.

The three Lupins glanced around at each other and laughed.

"Not in a million years," Kairi commented as the other two agreed with him.

"Why don't we take a trip to visit your brother?" Keiichiro asked bringing the subject back around. "Maybe you'd be in a better mood if you could visit him."

"Didn't I tell you guys to stop talking about him?" Kairi's voice went cold before he walked out of the bistro.

Later the Lupins and Patrangers ended up in a fight against themselves and a gangler. Lupinred was cornered by Patren 1gou and when he went to grapple off Keiichiro shot his hand making him drop the contraption.

"You aren't getting away that easily," Keiichiro growled.

"Then I guess we'll have to do this the hard way," Kairi responded as he threw a few punches at his rival. He hoped to get around 1gou and run off quickly but Keiichiro was not giving him that option.

"We should be focusing on the gangler, you know," Kairi looked at his teammates fighting.

"I think they've got it under control for now," Keiichiro answered. "I'd love to finally take you to get the justice you deserve."

"This is getting tiring. We both want to take out the ganglers, why don't you just leave us alone."

"You are a dirty thief. You have to face the consequences of your actions."

Kairi sighed before charging toward Keiichiro, hoping once more to get around him. Keiichiro caught Kairi and brought his knee up thinking Kairi was going to attack. His knee ended up connecting to Kairi's chest making him stumble back in pain, falling against the wall.

Keiichiro stood there stunned for a few seconds before Blue jumped in and pulled Lupin Red away.

Keiichiro, cleaned up after the battle, entered the bistro Jurer. He stopped Umika on her way to the kitchen, "Is Kairi here?"

"No," she responded quickly as she hurried and grabbed plates for a couple customers.

"Do you know when he'll be back? I was hoping to apologize for earlier and for looking into his brother."

"We'll tell him you stopped by," Touma assured, noting the policeman's presence.

As if on cue, Kairi came downstairs in a large sweater, one hand tucked into his pocket. He rolled his eyes and thought about heading up the stairs.

He and Touma made eye contact before the blue ranger handed him a plate of food.

"I wanted to apologize for earlier," Keiichiro started.

"Apology accepted," Kairi cut him off, "Now if you don't mind I'd like to eat in peace."

"Please just let me explain," Keiichiro continued.

Without thinking, Kairi pulled his hand from his pocket to wave Keiichiro away. Keiichiro's eyes focused on the bandage. "Seriously Kairi, who keeps hurting you?"

Kairi scrunched his face, "another accident."

"I keep finding you wounded. No one could be that clumsy."

"Well, I am. Please let me eat now."

Keiichiro patted Kairi on the back which made Kairi bend forward in pain. A small sob escaped his lips before he climbed off the stool and started heading toward the stairs.

"What did I hurt? Do you have bruises are something I touched? Are you sure no one is abusing you?" Keiichiro followed Kairi to the stairs.

"It doesn't matter, K-chan," Kairi smiled, "I got hurt a few places on accident. Totally my fault."

"Have you had a doctor check it out?"

"I know what's wrong with me, I don't need a doctor to tell me."

"They could at least give you some pain meds or something."

"It's ok."

"Kairi, you about fell over just by me touching you. You shouldn't have to deal with that pain."

"It's something I have to do K-chan. You wouldn't understand."

"You don't deserve pain."

"Don't I though?"

"Why do you keep talking like that? You don't deserve pain, you aren't a piece of crap, why do you hate yourself?"

Kairi chuckled, "you'd hate me too if you knew more about me."

"You keep saying that, but I have trouble believing it."

"You really want to know how I got these wounds? It was you."

"Me?"

"Yes. I kept trying to avoid fighting you. Kept trying not to hurt you. But no, you can't work together for five minutes to take down a gangler, can you?" 

Keiichiro's eyebrows furrowed as he listened to Kairi rant.

"Also, I don't know why you won't leave me alone. I'm your rival, I never tried to become your friend, but you keep worrying about me. You're just like my brother, no matter how hard I fight you, you always keep caring. And every time I look at you, I see him. He didn't go off grid, he was killed by a gangler. And you know, that's all we want is to save people we care about, and help others at the same time, but it doesn't matter, all you see is that we are thieves."

Kairi pulled his VS changer out and pointed it at Keiichiro, "You wanted to know more about me, well now you know. Now please get out of here, it's getting really hard to keep talking with these broken ribs."

Keiichiro gave a look of pity but kept quiet as he turned away. As soon as Keiichiro was out of sight, Kairi locked himself in his room. Keiichiro stepped right out of the bistro, avoiding eye contact with Umika and Touma, and headed off still worrying about Kairi.


End file.
